House Speaker Mike Johnson has presented Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer with an ultimatum: Join his letter inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, or the House will move ahead with an invitation on its own, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
Johnson told reporters that his office notified Schumer’s staff the day before that if the Senate leader does not sign the draft invitation for Netanyahu by Tuesday, he will proceed with inviting Netanyahu to address just the House.
The Speaker, however, noted that he would invite senators to attend the speech.
“My office told Senator Schumer’s office yesterday that he needed to sign the joint letter, and if not, we were gonna proceed and invite Netanyahu just to the House, and I’ll send individual invitations to senators,” Johnson said, according to The Hill.
Asked when the deadline for Schumer is, Johnson responded, “Today.”
Schumer reiterated following Johnson’s comments that he is open to hosting the Israeli leader at the Capitol.
“Yes,” Schumer replied when asked if he supports the idea of having Netanyahu address a joint meeting of Congress.
“I’m discussing that now with the Speaker of the House, and as I’ve always said, our relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one Prime Minister or president,” he added.
Netanyahu previously spoke before Congress in March of 2015.
Schumer caused an uproar in March when he gave a speech from the Senate floor, in which he claimed that Netanyahu “lost his way” and called the Prime Minister an "obstacle to peace."
Officials in both the US and Israel criticized Schumer at the time, though President Joe Biden later indicated he supported Schumer’s remarks.
Despite his criticism of Netanyahu, Schumer later hinted that he would not be opposed to Netanyahu addressing Congress.